Media & Coverage
Original writing from Scott L. Pleus, plus defense and general-news coverage of his command assignments, alliance engagements, and Pentagon leadership.
Insights
Original Writing from Scott
Pillar Article · Start Here
The Third Discipline: Why Good Culture and Good Systems Still Aren’t Enough
Most organizations invest in two things to build honest self-assessment: psychological safety and process design. Both are necessary. Neither is sufficient. The foundational essay behind everything else on this site.
Zero Failures Is Bad News — What Boards Miss About Readiness Reviews
Zero failures for years isn’t proof of readiness — it’s proof the test stopped working. Pleus on the boardroom blind spot most executives miss.
The Three-Minute Test That Tells You Whether Your Organization Will Fail Under Pressure
Three minutes on any operating floor reveals whether an organization is ready or only looks ready. Pleus on the signals that can’t be staged.
The Word Most Executives Use Wrong (And Why It Costs Them)
Responsibility means meeting your duties. Accountability means owning the outcome. Pleus on the language gap that quietly wrecks enterprise results.
Recognition Doesn’t Need a Speech
The best recognition Pleus ever gave was four words long, with no ceremony after it. Why small, immediate recognition beats the big gesture.
The Decisions You Can’t Undo
Not every leadership mistake resolves into a lesson. Pleus on the decisions that don’t undo, and how to operate with them anyway.
Why I Don’t Trust My Own Success
Three years of zero failures felt like winning. Pleus on why he stopped trusting his own clean record, and what he did about it.
Readiness Is a Product, Not a Value
Most executives can name a value their culture produces. Few can name what it manufactures. Pleus on treating readiness as a product.
The Standard Doesn’t Scale — It Repeats
A leader’s presence enforces a standard at small scale. It can’t at large scale. Pleus on what has to replace it as you grow.
Trust What’s Tested, Not What’s Told
Every organization has two versions of its performance: what’s reported upward, and what survives testing. Pleus on the gap most leaders stop checking.
Speed Is Not the Opposite of Diligence
A sixty-day turnaround and a decision Pleus still thinks about years later ran on the same instinct, at two speeds. Here’s the distinction.
Discipline Without Cruelty
Discipline and cruelty are not on the same axis. Pleus on why conflating enforcement with harshness costs organizations their best talent.
The Interview Question That Screens for Accountability
One question, asked correctly, tells you more about a candidate’s operating standard than every reference check combined. Pleus on how to ask it.
What Boards Should Ask Before They Hire an Operator
Boards spend weeks diligencing financials before an acquisition and twenty minutes diligencing the operator hired to run it. Three questions to fix that.
The Cost of Being the Only One Who Can’t Say It
The people best qualified to describe what makes them valuable are frequently the ones least able to say it out loud. Pleus on the structural cause.
Why “No News Is Good News” Is the Most Dangerous Sentence in Business
Somewhere in your organization, a problem that used to generate a complaint has stopped generating one. Pleus on why silence has to be verified.
The First Ninety Days Aren’t About You
Most advice for a new leader’s first ninety days is about making an early mark. Pleus on why reading the standard already there comes first.
The Two-Sentence Test for Whether Your Culture Is Real
Listen to how your team describes its last miss. Two sentences will tell you more about your actual culture than any survey. Pleus explains.
Pentagon
Air Staff & Vice Chief Coverage
Three-Star General Performing Duties of Air Force Vice Chief
Reporting on Pleus stepping in to perform the duties of Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force following a leadership change at the top of the service, beginning a role he held for roughly a year.
Air Force Orders No-Notice Readiness Inspections
Pleus, in his role performing the duties of Vice Chief of Staff, is quoted at length explaining the rationale behind new no-notice unit readiness inspections across the Air Force.
Air Force Grapples with Challenges to Aircraft Readiness
Coverage of remarks by Pleus at a public forum addressing the structural drivers of aircraft readiness shortfalls across the fleet and the service’s response.
After 11-Month Vacancy, Air Force Has a New Vice Chief
Coverage of Gen. Lamontagne’s confirmation as Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force, closing out the roughly year-long period during which Pleus performed the duties of the office.
Korea
Seventh Air Force & U.S. Forces Korea
Pleus Takes Over at 7th Air Force
Coverage of Pleus assuming command of Seventh Air Force, including remarks delivered at the change-of-command ceremony.
Introducing “Rolls”: A Quick Glance Inside the Seventh Air Force Commander
A DVIDS profile introducing Pleus — call sign “Rolls” — to the Seventh Air Force community shortly after he assumed command, including his own remarks on leadership and the Korea assignment.
Pleus: U.S. Capitol Attack Reverberated on the Korean Peninsula
Reporting on Pleus’s remarks during the AFA “Air and Space Warfighters in Action” webinar, in which he discussed how the January 6 Capitol attack was perceived by allies and adversaries alike in the Korea theater.
Yonhap News Symposium Highlights 70 Years of ROK-U.S. Alliance
Extensive coverage of Pleus’s remarks at a symposium marking seven decades of the ROK-U.S. alliance, addressing the future of combined defense on the Korean Peninsula.
Patches of PACAF 07/16: Seventh Air Force
An on-camera DVIDS video feature with Pleus discussing the history and heraldry of the Seventh Air Force patch and its significance to the command.
Career Milestones
Nominations, Promotions & Transitions
New PACAF Commander Tapped in Pentagon Nominations
Reporting on a slate of Pentagon general officer nominations that included Pleus, as part of a broader set of Pacific Air Forces leadership moves.
With Hold Lifted, What Happens Next for New Generals?
Coverage of a batch of general officer confirmations released after a Senate hold was lifted, within which Pleus’s nomination and assignment were reported.
U.S. Air Force Vice Nominee Pulled
Reporting on the withdrawal of a Vice Chief nomination, discussed in the context of the leadership vacancy Pleus was filling on an acting basis at the time.
Bussiere to Retire After Vice Chief Nomination Withdrawn
Additional coverage of the extended Vice Chief vacancy, during which Pleus continued to perform the duties of the office as Director of Staff.
Community
Hometown & Community Coverage
Lt. General Comes Home to Talk to Superior Students
A hometown feature from Superior, Wisconsin, on Pleus’s visit to speak with local students, with photographs and remarks on his path from the region into a career in the Air Force.
Official
Official Air Force Biographies
Official Biography — U.S. Air Force
The service-level official biography of Pleus maintained on the U.S. Air Force’s public website.
